Mark 4:35-41
Jesus Calms the Storm
35That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." 36Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"
39He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
40He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
41They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"
Matthew 1:23
God With Us
23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
We all want and would like to see some more solid proof, I think, that God exists...We would like to see more and more proof of His existence...Or would we?...When we seek God, we seem to do it more with our hearts than with our minds and intellect...It seems that we think about God with the idea of how well our lives are going, or how well our friends and family are doing with their health and with their success in their lives...When something goes bad or a bad storm comes up in our lives or the lives of the ones we love, we tend to look for God...We can read about and study the Bible, but when we suffer or our family and friends suffer, we question God...When troubles besiege us, questions like does God care, why doesn't He help me, why doesn't He answer my prayers, why is He hiding -come up?...But He seems not to answer the questions of some of our prayers, at least in a direct way...
Human suffering and troubles in life are an age old problem...The disciples even had it...And they were as near to Jesus as anyone ever has been...I want to repeat that...The disciples had troubles in their lives and Jesus was right there with them...St. Mark writes about one such problem...The disciples are caught in a terrible storm that came up quickly...Waves and water were flooding the boat...The disciples were terrified...They think they are going to drown...While this furious storm was going on, there lay Jesus, asleep on a cushion, on the lake (and in the outside elements) in the high winds and high waves...
Like the disciples, and in my times of trouble, I ask God where are you -"Don't You care?"...The disciples point blank as Jesus, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"...The disciples were not thinking about their latest Scriptures they had read...His recent teachings and Parables about the sower, the lamp, the growing seed, or the mustard seed that day...All those teachings seemed now forgotten once this violent wind and storm came up...Proof about the existence of God, (it seems to me) was the last thing the disciples were thinking about...They were terrified and wanted this fright of the storm to go away...This seemed to engulf their minds...All the studying in the world and being with Jesus, and His teachings about God, at this moment was not on their minds...Safety and survival was their concern...
They try and do get Jesus up from His comfortable sleep, in the storm...Jesus got up rebuked the storm, and told the furious squall, "Quiet!, Be still!."...And when He said this, the wind immediately died down and the seas were calm...Then the disciples ask, "Who is this?...Even the wind and the waves obey Him."...
What is interesting the disciples ask Jesus, "Don't You care?"...He never answered their question on caring...What He does ask them is two questions...The first one is why are you so afraid?...The second is"Do you still have no faith?"...
In the midst of our questions about proof for God, storms come up and interrupt us and our problems become, so it seems more important than our evidence for God...Jesus did not remove the problems in His disciples lives (even though He could have)...We really seem more concerned (in God terms) are you there with me in this storm, are you beside us, are you with us...Jesus was born Immanuel, and was right beside the disciples in the boat...The disciples seemed to forget that (like we do)...Jesus tells us it is all about our faith (with His two questions) in the terrifying storms that will come up in our lives...After all He died, but He resurrected...He is alive...He was right beside the disciples when the storm came up...Yet, their fear seemed to take away their faith...And He is right beside them and us, as we pray...He is on His knees praying with us...Jesus rests on a cushion with His faith in His Father, no matter how high the waves...We need to learn from Him, as best we can from this...